What Is your weirdest Household/timesaving tip

[Mary Kay]

Since I am basicly lazy, unless it's something I want to do, I thought I would ask for tips. I have read and mostly ignored all the tried and true..give me your strangest, wackiest most loved tips.
I will start the ball rolling. If you have baked on food, like macaroni and cheese or meat drippings on a broiler pan, don't scrub! I give it to my tiny little maids to clean. Red Ants! In Florida there are gabillions of nests just waiting to send out the guards to bite you. We get rid of all of them but one. That one is not close to the house and under a bush so it's not likely to be stepped in. I plop my pan or roaster down and wait a day or three to go get it, clean as a whistle. Those gals even got some stuff I could never scrub off! They work cheap and never need vacations.
I suppose any type of ant will do, but our red "fire ants" are really aggressive. I don't guess Auzzie and New Zealand "Jack Jumpers" would be a good idea come to think of it. Maybe not the "Army Ants".
Yes, I do know to spray pam on the pans before baking..I manage to burn it on anyway lolol
Mary

[ritalee76]

If you have baked on food, like macaroni and cheese or meat drippings on a broiler pan, don't scrub! I give it to my tiny little maids to clean. Red Ants! In Florida there are gabillions of nests just waiting to send out the guards to bite you. We get rid of all of them but one. That one is not close to the house and under a bush so it's not likely to be stepped in. I plop my pan or roaster down and wait a day or three to go get it, clean as a whistle. Those gals even got some stuff I could never scrub off! They work cheap and never need vacations.

That's a great tip!!! We have tons of those here and now maybe I can put them to good use! LOL

[Wildsky]

My dog will clean anything with food on it! (Including the kids!)

My tips and tricks are mostly about saving $$$. I do HATE spending money! I go so far as to make my own laundry detergent, gave up on those wet wipe things, and use cloth rag with a spray bottle with bleach and water mixed.
Vinegar is also your best friend when cleaning....

[karenrcg]

Foget all these posh clothes you can buy the best thing for polishing windows and tiles is good old newspaper

[Mary Kay]

Wildsky, what happened to your corset?
Vinegar is a girls best friend! Along with a news paper for window cleaning. And a husband to do it! Sometimes it is GOOD to be short.
Hi Karen, alas newspapers are getting scarce. They are going out of business right and left. I guess it's due to 24 hour a day news on cable and the net.
nice to meet you.
Here's another:
Newspaper weeds away:
Start putting in your plants in the ground, work the
nutrients in your soil.
Wet Newspapers: put layers around the plants
overlapping as you go
Cover with mulch and forget about weeds.
Weeds will get through some gardening plastic
they will not get through wet newspapers.
(sorry about the color..it was just my blue phase)
Rita, Great picture!
Mary

[Sexi]

Wildsky, what happened to your corset?
Vinegar is a girls best friend! Along with a news paper for window cleaning. And a husband to do it! Sometimes it is GOOD to be short.
Hi Karen, alas newspapers are getting scarce. They are going out of business right and left. I guess it's due to 24 hour a day news on cable and the net.
nice to meet you.
Here's another:
Newspaper weeds away:
Start putting in your plants in the ground, work the
nutrients in your soil.
Wet Newspapers: put layers around the plants
overlapping as you go
Cover with mulch and forget about weeds.
Weeds will get through some gardening plastic
they will not get through wet newspapers.
(sorry about the color..it was just my blue phase)
Rita, Great picture!
Mary

The newspaper trick also works for the entire garden LOL. I hate weeds, but I also hate pulling this pesky buggers & a tiller only gets so close. Any watermelon, cucumbers, or anything that vines on the ground. When the plants are about 4 or 5 inches tall I use the newspaper in the same way to keep weeds out. Water & air can get to the ground, but weeds can't get back up....... & the newspaper doesn't cook the plants like some black landscape mulch in really hot weather.

[DMacRae]

I have a husband who spilled red wine all the time, so here is my favorite cleaning tip EVER: Hydrogen peroxide with a drop of dish detergent like Dawn in it will get red wine stains out of carpets and fabrics. Be sure and test an inconspicuous area first, but I have never had this fail.

[DMacRae]

The newspaper trick also works for the entire garden LOL. I hate weeds, but I also hate pulling this pesky buggers & a tiller only gets so close. Any watermelon, cucumbers, or anything that vines on the ground. When the plants are about 4 or 5 inches tall I use the newspaper in the same way to keep weeds out. Water & air can get to the ground, but weeds can't get back up....... & the newspaper doesn't cook the plants like some black landscape mulch in really hot weather.

Cardboard boxes also work. They're better around shrubs and large areas. I did whole shrub borders in cardboard with mulch over it last year and it still looks great with no weeds!

[Wildsky]

I need to do something this year so I'm not pulling weeds out my garden. We have such high winds here I'm thinking if I put newspapers down, they'll end up in the next county! LOL

[CssReb]

believe it or not we do have skunks roaming around our neighborhoods here in the big city.
So, walking the dogs at night can become a nightmare especially nights when garbage is at the curb for morning pick up.

My dogs have gotten sprayed a couple times

Forget about tomato juice it doesn't work, the only thing it did was turn my bichon's hair pink.

Best remedy for removing skunk odor is peroxide and baking soda.

1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup of baking soda
1 teaspoon of liquid detergent.

(this solution also works on urine odors)

lather it up and leave it on for about 10 minutes

Follow bath with a tap water rinse.

Peroxide has a bleaching effect so, if your dog has dark hair it may lighten the color.